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With an occasional break, the flying weather was consistently rotten last week, from fog to snow, rain to ice. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity to get the plane out, so when the sun did break through, cold or not, the skies filled with aircraft.
We observed a red-tail Piper Archer from ATD Flight School from Downtown airport, a Cessna 172 and a big Piper Saratoga, making multiple full-stop landings. From the local fleet, the Cessna 150 trainers competed for airspace, interspersed with visitors using the VORTAC for instrument approach practice.
Thanks to excellent work by the City street plows, the Butler airport runway and parking ramp were uncovered the day after the two-inch snowfall. It wasn’t a big snow, but the extensive pavement made good-sized snowpiles. Good work.
Nationally, the FAA announced last week that, despite overwhelming industry objection, it’s going ahead with a mandated Airworthiness Directive requiring replacement of rudder posts on high-wing Piper tube-and-fabric planes built in the 1940s and 50s. There were just two non-fatal rudder failures in Alaska where the mild-steel frame collapsed, and those were modified from factory stock. But the FAA wants them made of 4130 steel instead, and 31,000 old Pipers will have to been undergo expensive work.
Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket company is somewhat in competion with Elon Musk’s Space X firm, but its planning to lay off 10% of its staff of 14,000 employees. The CEO claims the cuts will enable them to increase product of the big New Glenn rocket and launch more frequently, which sounds rather counterproductive.
On the international scene, France has instituted new taxes on users of business jets that really adds a new level of punitive punishment on charter customers. Rates will be hiked up to 300% on March 1, charging $436 per passenger inside Europe, $1054 for flights up to 3,000 miles, $2,181 beyond that, per head. The Minister of Taxation claims gouging the charter passengers will raise $800,000 per year, assuming the sheep will stand still for being shorn instead of fleeing to more welcoming pastures. It’s all about fairness and ecological justice, of course.
There’s always a lot of misunderstanding about rich people and their flying via private jets. In reality, it’s unrealistic to expect prominent people who can afford the alternative to stand in line to ride an airliner. Taylor Swift would be mobbed and couldn’t keep a schedule traveling by mass transit. Someone making tens of millions of dollars per year has to make their time productive; if they can get home the same day, even though it costs a few thousand to hire a private plane, it’s worth it. The logistics of staying out overnight costs much more.
Last week wanted to know what was the biggest piston aircraft engine ever used in a production plane. That would be the Pratt and Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major, a 28-cylinder corncob motor producing over 3,000 hp, built toward the end of WW-II. For next time, tell us which World War 2 U.S. plane was flown by the most “ace” fighter pilots. You can send your answers to kochhaus1@gmail.com.
